Category: In Pursuit of Virtue

Fail FORWARD

February 14, 2018
by Mike Slater

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE iTunes PODCAST HERE

I want to talk about failure.

I came across this video from the founder of Spanx, before you laugh, she’s worth over $1 billion. I’m not. So I feel like I should listen to her.

I love that idea, “Failure for me is not trying”!

If you don’t want to do something because you’re afraid of failing, you ARE failing.

Nothing is worse than not trying.

Jeff Bezos, had a great, safe job at a software company. He had the idea for an online bookstore. Should he quit his job and take the risk? He did the math in his head: in 50 years, where will I have the most regret? If I try this online bookstore and fail or if I don’t even try it at all? He decided he’ll have more regret if he didn’t try at all.

Gold Medalist figure skater Scott Hamilton has calculated that he’s fallen 41,600 times on the ice. “The greatest ingredient in a joyful and productive life is failure”

It’s like the old Nike commercial with Michael Jordan,

“I’ve missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

This is the Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles:

https://youtu.be/PZeAcWhCrls

One of Jordan Peterson’s rules for life is “Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today. A line that we’ve used a lot is “Don’t compare your behind the scenes to someone else’s highlight reel.” That’s what people put on social media. But I like Peterson’s line better.

One last quick piece of advice if you are stuck with some aspect of your life, please read the book The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

This book finally motivated me to buckle down and write my book. It’s all about The Resistance. This is the force that’s keeping you from doing the things you know you should do.

We think Th Resistance is an external force. We blame a million other things and people for why we’re not doing the thing we want to do: we blame our spouse, our job, our boss, the economy, but The Resistance is an enemy within. It’s self-generated and self-perpetuated. And it is programmed to do one thing: prevent you from doing your work.

You have to kill it.

You are more than your resistance, you are more powerful than the resistance, and what you are going to create is better than the resistance. Fail. Fail fast and fail forward. Learn from your failures, and celebrate them!

That’s on an individual level.  I want to talk about it societally as well. We have to keep our society as one that celebrates risk and has the proper perspective on failure.

Nassim Taleb in the book Antifragile [CLICK HERE for a great analysis of the man theme of the book] makes the point that American kids have the worse test scores, but we have the strongest economy and more innovation and entrepreneurs. Why? Why doesn’t Japan, who is always at the top of the education test score rankings, have a stronger economy?

One reason is culture.

Our culture has been one that celebrates risk. People try new things and start new businesses and invent new products. But in Japan, if you risk and fail, it brings great shame on you and your family. So people are encouraged to not risk and not try new things.

There is a Jeff Bezos in Japan, with a great idea and the ability to do it, but his culture says, “dont risk.” So he doesn’t, and the Japanese version of Amazon, or whatever it is, doesn’t happen.

I fear our culture is becoming more risk averse.

I look forward, to be like Sara Blakely’s dad; to celebrate failures around the dinner table with my son because it means he’s taking risks. It means my son is growing. It means my son is becoming the fullest version of himself.

We talked about this on the radio the other day. A listener called in and shared a quote his boss has on the wall of their engineering company: Mario Andretti “If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.”

So get out of your comfort zone. Get out and fail!

Two questions for you: What’s a major failure in your life you’ve made and how has it made you a stronger person. Second question, what’s something you’ve always been scared to do, and maybe now you want to publicly commit to? Share it in the comments and we’ll encourage you!

On Eating Horse Manure

February 8, 2018
by Mike Slater


I want to talk about people rioting after your team wins the championship, and what it says about human nature.

I used to think that this was abnormal behavior: climbing street lights, breaking windows and – in one guy’s case – eating horse manure.

But I’m coming to the conclusion that this is actually normal behavior. The NOT acting like a fool is the unexpected behavior.

Let me explain.

Humans are broken and fallen and evil. The song Amazing Grace, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” A wretch. A despicable person. The Bible says no one is righteous, not even one. This is our normal state. It’s not good.

To keep us upright (and at least functioning enough to be able to work with and amongst our fellow human beings) there are internal guides and external guides. We’ll just focus on external right now. These are guard rails that say: “This is proper behavior. If you deviate from this, there will be negative consequences for your life.”

Some of these guardrails are legal, “You can’t punch someone in the face”. If you do, you go to jail. Some are societal, “You can’t eat horse manure.” You legally can, but it’s socially frowned upon.

These societal guardrails are called culture.

We are thiiiiiiiis close to chaos. All of us, at any given point in time, but it’s culture that keeps us upright and in line; standing tall and moving in the right direction.

Now, what’s interesting about the Super Bowl, For whatever reason, our culture says: “if your team wins the championship, there are no societal guardrails for one night! So act like a fool!” Or, in other words, act like you normally would if society didn’t have guardrails. For one night!

And this is what you get.

Chaos. And a guy eating horse manure.

Now, in normal circumstances, the “eating horse manure” guardrail in our culture is firmly in place. No one thinks that’s socially acceptable.

But there are other guardrails that have eroded, and this is why cultural conservatives care so much about culture.

Just one example from today, have you seen the picture of the Hadid sisters? Two models, sisters, posing naked together.

If you’re immersed in our oversexualized culture, where the guardrails have been eroded, you think that’s beautiful photography. But you live in normal land, you see that and think “What in the world?”

I put on our facebook page pictures from Playboy in 1957, there are women dressed with more clothes than a 90-year-old librarian: tube socks, baggy sweaters, skirts below the knees. And the guys are gawking. I compared that to what women wore to the Grammys. They look like hookers.

This is a cultural guardrail that has eroded. There now are no guardrails. It’s game on.

What’s the problem with this?

I talk with Jordan Peterson the other day, he makes an argument to his students that if you were born in Nazi Germany, you’d probably be a Nazi.

Why? Here’s what he said

I think of course, “If I was in Nazi Germany, I wouldn’t have been a Nazi! I would have been Dietrich Bonhoeffer, plotting to kill Hitler! That would have been me!”

I think, “The reason I’m not like that is because I’m such a good person. I have a great moral foundation that I live my life by and I have a lot of discipline and a strong moral code.”

Well, don’t get too proud of yourself, Slater. Peterson says a lot of it is good fortune:

It’s easy to be a good person in our society! With our prosperity! It’s easy. Too easy. It lulls us into thinking that people are good.

I think that one reason why so many young Americans especially like socialism. It’s not because things are so bad and we need it. It’s because things are so good, and kids don’t know how evil people are capable of being.

It’s easy, in our society, to think, “People will share and be honest and good and wait their turn and be generous.”

Nope. They won’t. Because we’re not those things. At least, it’s easier to be those things when we’re wealthy and safe and prosperous and healthy.

So what’s the takeaway from this?

1) It’s important to know what evil you’re capable of. It gives you some kick in the pants to make yourself a better person.

2) It’s important to know what society is capable of. It makes you more aware of the importance of societal guardrails.

3) And for me, it’s awareness that life is a million little decisions.

I think of Ernest Shackleton, Arctic explorer, at the end of two years being stuck, they had to make a last ditch effort to find landfall. So they launched their lifeboat, six of them, to travel 900 miles, going on the stars to find a tiny island. It would be like finding a needle on a football field blind. Over fifteen days, and they made it.

The amazing part to me, every measurement they made had to be spot on. If they were one degree off at any moment, they would have sailed past the island and into the open sea. They had to be precise at every moment or else they would not have come close to getting to the island

It’s the little decisions you make every day. Be aware of them. Don’t get too far off course.

Ji Seong-ho, North Korean Defector at SOTU

February 2, 2018
by Mike Slater

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PURSUIT OF VIRTUE PODCAST ON iTunes HERE

I heard someone criticize the president for honoring only Americans at the SOTU.

I thought this was a strange standard. There’s no way the Chancellor of Germany sings the praises of Americans. Or the Queen of England talks about Chinese people. Or the King of Saudi Arabia talks about South Africans. But the President of the United States is supposed to talk about people who aren’t American?

Odd criticism, but the truth is, he didn’t ONLY talk about Americans! He also highlighted a North Korean defector now living in South Korea. He may have been born in North Korea, but he had a deep desire for FREEDOM and for American values.

He grew up near Camp 22, a gulag way up on the border of North Korea and Russia. In 1995, the daily food ration stopped going to the town. He and his sisters would climb the mountains to find grass and bark to eat.

When the crops were gone, they dug up and ate the roots. When those were gone, government officials told them about certain patches of the ground that had nutrients in it. So they ate the dirt.

Yesterday my wife and I went to Chipotle. I spent time considering if I wanted the black or pinto beans. And then I thought long and hard if I wanted to pay another $2 for guacamole or not.

Ji Seong-ho ate dirt to survive

Think about the people commenting today about our first world problems. This man was so poor, and his family was told to eat dirt!

The biggest health problem in America is diabetes because of our decadence. They ate dirt. Or starved to death.

When Ji Seong-ho was introduced by the President at the SOTU, he held a pair of homemade crutches triumphantly above his head. Why did he have crutches? His leg and hand fo cut off when he was trying to steal coal off of a train so his family could survive the freezing nights.

Last month my wife and I did the Whole 30 Diet. You can only eat fresh fruits and vegetables and meat. We complained a lot. “Ugh, Brussels sprouts again!”

Think about that. I’m complaining about whole 30, where I can only eat fresh and healthy food. And this guy survived on grass, tree bark and dirt.

Every ungrateful American needs to hear his story. Once I did, about 98% of my first-world problems disappeared instantly.